Fund performance: San Francisco pension finds strong starts from IVP, Canaan, Weathergage funds

The San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System has continued to be an active venture investor, adding new funds in 2014 from Canaan Partners, OpenView Venture Partners, Sofinnova Ventures, DFJ, Bain Capital Ventures, DCM Ventures and others.

The reward has been several strong starts from among its recent bets, including ones from Canaan, IVPand Weathergage Venture Capital.

Unlike many large public LPs, SFERS maintains an aggressive approach to venture. It holds 28 venture and venture-related investments from vintages 2011 to 2015. While the portfolio is young and building a foundation, it generally looks successful.

Already, several funds are showing themselves as standouts. At the top of the portfolio is Institutional Venture Partners XIV from 2012, which as of December 2014 had an investment multiple of 1.7x, according to a recent portfolio report.

Canaan X, also from 2012, wasn’t far behind. Its investment multiple as of December was 1.5x, the report shows. Fund of funds Weathergage Capital Investments A also had an investment multiple of 1.5x

Several other funds are trending well are Sofinnova Venture Partners VIII from 2011, DCM Ventures China Fund from the same year, and Weathergage Capital Investments B.

New additions to the portfolio include FirstMark Capital OF I, DCM Ventures China Turbo Fund, OpenView Venture Partners IV and Canaan X.

The table accompanying this story lists the 28 funds with their multiples, distributions, capital commitments, where available.